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River Life: New column by JU's A. Quinton White will explain, educate, entertain about waterways

Bob.Mack@jacksonville.com -- 4/17/12 -- The old Consumer Panel will be replaced by the new Taste Test. The new panel member Quinton White was photographed in the studio along with a selection of product shots. (The Florida Times-Union, Bob Mack)

We are lucky to be have so many places in which we can enjoy one of our best natural assets: Water. Each month, A. Quinton White, executive director of Jacksonville University’s Marine Science Research Institute, will explain, educate and entertain about our area waterways. Look for his column in the Metro section on the last Friday of the month. He will also answer your questions, which you can email to qwhite@ju.edu. For more on the MSRI, visit ju.edu/msri.

Dredging issues. The challenges of commerce and trade. Protecting a critical resource.

They’re topics making headlines today when discussing the St. Johns River, but they were just as crucial a century and more ago as it became more and more critical to the leisure and livelihood of Northeast Florida.

Welcome to River Life, a monthly column about the biology and ecology of our most vital natural asset: our local waterways.

Our goal with River Life is to share what we’ve learned at Jacksonville University’s Marine Science Research Institute about marine issues, and to answer your questions related to our waterways.

What better way to start than by going back to the beginning — at least to Western civilization’s discovery of one of the most important environmental and economic features of Northeast Florida.

Few people could have imagined the St. Johns River as it is today in 1562 when Jean Ribault landed and named it the Rio de May (River May). The shallow, meandering river has changed dramatically over the 350 years since its discovery.

Ribault was one of the earliest explorers of this area. Others included John Bartram, a botanist and explorer; his brother William Bartram, a naturalist, explorer and artist; and John James Audubon, the ornithologist and painter. The Bartrams documented plants and some animals, while Audubon focused on bird life.

Early sailors entered the mouth of the St. Johns cautiously because of the shifting sand and meandering channel that changed with every tide and storm. Mayport Mills on the south bank and Pilot Town on the north served as home to men who would help ships navigate the treacherous sandbars of the river. Hence the name Bar Pilots that survives today.

In the late 1890s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began construction of a pair of granite jetties to stabilize the mouth of the river so ships could safely enter and leave. But ships still require Bar Pilots even today to enter and leave the port of Jacksonville.

Projects to improve the river for commerce began in 1892 with dredging to a depth of 15 feet. Dredging and what is now termed harbor maintenance have continued, resulting in a 42-foot channel from the mouth of the river to the Talleyrand docks, about 21 miles (there is a study being done by the Army Corps of Engineers to see whether it should be deepened even more).

Today, the St. Johns River bears little resemblance to Ribault’s Rio de May, but continues to be a critical economic and environmental asset to Florida.

Ask River LifeWhere did Heckscher Drive get its name?

August Heckscher was an Austrian immigrant who had made his fortune in mining iron, zinc and coal in making steel and in Florida real estate, according to the July 23, 1929, edition of The Jacksonville Journal. He built the toll road as a way to get to Pilot Town on the north side of the St. Johns River.

The road was possible because the sand and material dredged from the various projects to deepen the river had been deposited on its banks. This accumulation of sand became the foundation for what is now Heckscher Drive.